Data Storage Technologies

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Data Storage Technologies

Ramūnas MARKAUSKAS

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Data Storage Technologies Study Guide

Cycle: 1st_level

Study program: Information Technologies Course unit code: ITDST

Awarding institution: Department of Computer Science II, Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics

Preparation of the study guide was supported by

the project „Increasing Internationality in Study Programs of the Department of Computer Science II“, project number VP1–2.2–ŠMM-07-K-02-070, funded by The European Social Fund Agency and the Government of Lithuania.

Studijų vadovo medžiagos rengimą rėmė

projektas „Kompiuterijos katedros studijų programų tarptautiškumo didinimas“, projekto kodas VP1–2.2–ŠMM-07-K-02-070, finansuojamas iš Europos socialinio fondo ir Lietuvos valstybės biudžeto lėšų.

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Abstract

This course is intended for students who wish / need to understand the different type of storage technologies, their architectures and the technological trends. While the information provided in this course is essential for IT system administrators and key knowledge for data storage administrators, but it can also be used in one’s everyday life dealing with personal storage.

The course is delivered by the means of inclusive lectures, task solving in class and individually, individual analysis of literature, presentation, project work, case analysis, data interpretation and consulting.

Assessment strategy

Assessment of the course consists of:

1. Exam test for maximum of 4 points (5 open questions, 0.4 points each and 10 multiple-choice questions, 0.2 points each), assessment criteria are based on the correctness of the answer. Deadline: during exam session;

2. Project presentation / defence for maximum of 3 points. Project is done in a groups of two students, assessment criteria are based on logical reasoning, technical requirements conformity (up to 80%); level of presentation and oratory (up to 10%); style of presentation (up to 10%). Deadline: till 14th_lecture;

3. Class / homework presentation /defence for maximum of 3 points (5 problems, 0.6 points each) , assessment criteria are based on one’s ability to explain logics of the solution (up to 40%) and connection between variables and parameters of technical equipment (up to 40%); right arithmetic operations (up to 20%). Deadline: till 9th lecture;

4. Additionally, to earn extra 3 points, one can present / defend a laboratory work “Installation and Configuration of Virtual Data Storage”. Assessment criteria are based on the fact of installation of virtual data storage (explanation up to 10%), configuration of Back-End components (fact up to 15%, explanation up to 15%), configuration of Front-End components and access (fact up to 20%, explanation up to 20%), demonstration of access (up to 20%). Deadline: till the end of the course.

Content of the course

1. Introduction to Storage technologies [1: chapter 1] a. Information Storage

b. Evolution of storage technology and architecture c. Key challenges

d. Information Lifecycle

2. Storage system environment [1: chapter 2] a. Components of storage system b. Disk drive components

c. Disk drive performance

d. Fundamental laws for drive performance e. Logic components of the host

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d. RAID comparison

e. RAID impact on disk performance 4. Intelligent storage systems [1: chapter 4]

a. Components

b. Intelligent storage array 5. DAS and SCSI [1: chapter 5]

a. Types of DAS

b. DAS benefits and limits c. Disk drives interfaces d. Introduction to parallel SCSI e. SCSI command model 6. NAS [1: chapter 7]

a. General purpose servers versus NAS devices b. Benefits of NAS

c. NAS File I/O

d. Components of NAS e. NAS implementations

f. NAS file sharing protocols (NFS, CIFS) g. NAS I/O operations

h. NAS performance and availability 7. SAN [1: chapter 6]

a. Overview of Fiber Channel b. SAN and its evolution c. Components of SAN d. FC connectivity e. FC ports f. FC architecture g. Zoning h. FC login types i. FC topologies 8. IP SAN [1: chapter 8] a. Components of iSCSI b. iSCSI host connectivity c. iSCSI protocol stack d. iSCSI names and sessions

e. iSCSI error handling and security f. FCIP

9. CAS [1: chapter 9]

a. Fixed content and archives b. Types of archives

c. Benefits of CAS d. CAS architecture

e. Object storage and retrieval in CAS f. CAS examples

10. Storage, server virtualization, real world examples [1: chapter 10] a. Forms of virtualization

b. SNIA virtualization taxonomy

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e. Types of storage virtualization

11. Business continuity, Backup and recovery [1: chapter 11, 12] a. Backup purpose

b. Backup considerations c. Granularity

d. Recovery considerations e. Backup methods and process f. Backup and restore operations g. Topologies

h. Backup in NAS i. Backup technologies

12. Local and remote replication [1: chapter 13, 14] 13. Storage security and management [1: chapter 15, 16]

a. Storage security framework b. Risk triad

c. Storage security domains d. Security implementations e. Monitoring infrastructure f. Management activities g. Management challenges

Literature

Required

[1] EMC education services, Information Storage and Management: Storing, Managing, and Protecting Digital Information. John Wiley & Sons, 2009.

Optional

EMC education services, Information Storage and Management: Storing, Managing, and

Protecting Digital Information in Classic, Virtualized, and Cloud Environments, 2nd ed. John Wiley & Sons, 2012.

G. Schulz, Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking. Taylor & Francis, 2011. M. Gupta, Storage Area Network Fundamentals. Cisco Press, 2002.

Exam test

Example of an open question

How many milliseconds does it take for an HDD of 5.400 RPM to do a full round? Please, give the full solution. (Answer may be found in lecture #2)

Example of multiple choice question

What is the minimal amount of controllers for a storage array of type AA (active - active)? (Answer may be found in lecture #4)

[A] 1 [B] 2

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Project cases

Each group of two students should choose one project case and inform the lecturer by e-mail about group members and their choice. The same case may be chosen not more than by two groups and the solutions between groups should be totally different. Detailed case interpretation will be done during laboratory work. Projects should be presented / defended in a presentational form. The presentation should consist of:

1. Introduction: presentation of current situation;

2. Architectural solution: presentation of proposed system’s architecture, requirements for the environment;

3. Proposal: presentation of real world hardware with specification and prices to fulfill the requirements.

Intensive use of schemas and graphics is desirable.

1st_case

Select and present data storage equipment for MS Exchange 2010 environment with the following parameters / requirements:

1. E-mail boxes count: 4000; 2. Average size of a box: 2 GB;

3. Expected growth of boxes count: 1% per year; 4. Expected growth of boxes size: 50% per year; 5. Part of intensively used boxes: 30%;

6. RPO: 24 hours; 7. RTO: 1 hour; 8. Period: 3 years.

2nd_case

Select and present data storage equipment for e-mail server of your choice with the following parameters / requirements:

1. E-mail boxes count: 500; 2. Average size of a box: 1 GB;

3. Expected growth of boxes count: 5% per year; 4. Expected growth of boxes size: 120% per year; 5. Part of intensively used boxes: 80%;

6. RPO: 5 min; 7. RTO: 0 min; 8. Period: 5 years.

3rd_case

Select and present data storage equipment for an application with the following parameters / requirements:

1. IOPS: 450,000; 2. Block size: 4 KB;

3. Distribution of read / write operations: 80 / 20; 4. RPO: 0 hours;

5. RTO: 0 hour;

6. Records should be kept online at least for 3 years and may be destroyed after 10 years; 7. Period: 10 years.

4th_case

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1. IOPS: 250,000; 2. Block size: 4 MB;

3. Distribution of read / write operations: 40 / 60; 4. RPO: 0 hours;

5. RTO: 0 hour;

6. Records should be kept online at least for 3 years and may be destroyed after 10 years; 7. Period: 10 years.

5th_case

Select and present data storage equipment for application with the following parameters / requirements:

1. IOPS: 50,000; 2. Block size: 16 KB;

3. Distribution of read / write operations: 90 / 10; 4. Database size: 20 TB;

5. Expected growth of database: 15% per year; 6. RPO: 0 hours;

7. RTO: 24 hour;

8. Records should be kept online at least for 5 years and may be destroyed after 25 years.

6th_case

Current equipment: one AA type SAN device with 128 GB SSD connected over FCP and configured in RAID 5 mode (two RAID groups with six disks in each; one disk used as Hot Spare). Requirements:

3. Distribution of read / write operations: 90 / 10; 4. Database size: 600 GB;

7. RTO: 24 hour;

8. Data distribution by creation date: a. Recent year – 80.0%; b. 1 to 3 years – 15.0%; c. 3 to 10 years – 5.0%; d. Over 10 years – 0.0%.

7th_case

Current equipment: one AA type SAN device with 256 GB SSD connected over FCP and configured in RAID 1 mode (six RAID groups with two disks in each; one disk used as Hot Spare). Requirements:

3. Distribution of read / write operations: 85 / 15; 4. Database size: 1 TB;

7. RTO: 24 hour;

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c. 3 to 10 years – 10.0%; d. Over 10 years – 5.0%.

Problem solving

Each problem should be solved in a written form and defended.

1st_problem

Application operates with blocks of size 64 KB and has 1,000 intensive users, who generate 2 IOPS each, and also 2,000 regular users, who generate 1 IOPS each. Each intensive user uses up to 400 GB and regular – up to 75 GB of storage space. Distribution of read / write operations is respectively 2/1. Management processes create additional 20% IOPS flow. Calculate IOPS requirements for RAID of type 1, 5 and 6.

2nd_problem

The manufacturer gives the following parameters of hard disk drive: rotation speed – 15,000 RPM; external data transfer rate – 3 Gbps; internal data transfer rate – 120 MBps; average seek time – 3 ms, capacity – 2TB Calculate the IOPS capability of this disk if 64 KB data blocks are used.

3rd_problem

The manufacturer gives the following parameters of solid state drive: external data transfer rate – 6 Gbps; internal data transfer rate – 400 MBps; average seek time – 0.1 ms, capacity – 256 GB Calculate the IOPS capability of this disk if 4 KB data blocks are used.

4th_problem

Calculate, how many disk from the 2nd_{problem will be needed to fulfill the requirements for the}

application from the 1st_{problem with all mentioned RAID types.}

5th_problem

Calculate, how many disk from the 3rd problem will be needed to fulfill the requirements for the application from the 1st problem with all mentioned RAID types.

Laboratory work “Installation and Configuration of Virtual Data Storage

(VDS)”

Goal

• To get to know the technological principles of data storage, configuration abilities, protocols in use;

• To practically try the process of data storage installation / configuration by using VDS.

Work flow

1. Get to know candidates for VDS installation (FreeNAS, NAS4Free, …); 2. Decide, which one you’ll be working with;

3. Prepare virtual machine in an environment of your own which fulfill requirements for your chosen VDS;

4. Create additional 3 to 5 virtual disks of possible smallest size for information storage;

5. Install virtual machine and complete basic configuration tasks (user accounts, network configuration, …);

6. Create RAID array of selected level;

7. Configure VDS to be accessed over CIFS and iSCSI; 8. Access VDS over CIFS and iSCSI;

Data Storage Technologies

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Data Storage Technologies

Contents

Abstract

Assessment strategy

Content of the course

Literature

Exam test

Project cases

Problem solving

Laboratory work “Installation and Configuration of Virtual Data Storage

(VDS)”